In March 2014 we were lucky enough to be invited to check out The Edge which is a glass cube / box / room which projects 3 metres out of the 88th floor of the Eureka Tower, the world’s tallest residential tower located on the southbank of the Yarra River in Melbourne Australia.
Here are the exciting parts…
- The Edge commences inside the building and slowly pushes outside the building
- The Edge has glass walls, ceiling ‘and’ floor
- The Edge is suspended almost 300 metres above the ground
- You are inside The Edge!
There is nothing you have ever experienced that will prepare you for The Edge.
It is electric!
Skydeck 88
You arrive on the 88th floor named Skydeck 88 to be greeted with amazing views around Melbourne, as far as the yeye can see. The trip in the lift is worth the entrance ticket alone. Talk about fast, it travels at more than 9 metres per second.
Basically the experience is a two-part ticket. You buy a ticket for the Skydeck 88, The Edge or both.
There is nothing you have ever experienced that will prepare you for the awe inspiring views from the Southern Hemisphere’s highest viewing platform.
Experience
I have to say my son (12) and I were very impressed by the whole experience. It starts with the amazing fast trip in the lift. The kid loved it. You come out at the 88th floor to be greeted by yet another happy friendly staff member, something we both commented on a number of times, except for the attendant for The Edge itself, who sounded a bit short and grumpy. Maybe she was, but her mood was better on our exit.
The rest of the experience is fabulous. I have been looking forward to this for months and was not disappointed.
I had heard the queues for The Edge were bad and not looking forward to waiting, but we were pleasantly surprised. Ticket holders for The Edge are given an electronic buzzer that lights up and beeps when it is your turn, meaning you are 100% free to move around Skydeck 88 until its your turn.. how good is that. The receptionist said the wait was longer on weekends, but with views like this who would care. She thought our wait might be around 30 minutes but we were excited when our buzzer lit up after about 10 minutes.
We headed (ran excitedly) towards The Edge queue area and greeted by an attendant who explains the procedure. Today there is us (me and the kid), an Asian lady and two young female tourists from America.
Everyone is given cloth slippers that are worn over your shoes, and then you place all your belongings in a secure locker, in other words you cannot take ‘anything’ into The Edge. No camera’s, no bags, no drinks, nothing but you and 88 floors down. Fan(bloody)tastic. Everyone moves inside a glass and metal framed room (the windows are opaque at this point, meaning you can’t see out) and the attendant explains what will happen plus where to stand when it is your turn for the obligatory ‘experience’ photo.
The door closes and then the experience commences. I’ve decided to not explain everything that happens so the experience is as exciting as it was for us.. fabulous fun, but then with a crack the opaque windows clear and you are looking out out, up, down 88 floors to the most exciting view you will ever see.
Keep in mind the images below do not include any from inside The Edge because you cannot take cameras inside but they will give you an idea of the fun and excitement of what it is like to be on The Edge.
The pic with the wire cage is an outdoor platform showing The Edge platform while it is housed inside the Eureka building.
